Website layout - Thinking like your visitors
We all know how our web site is laid out — after all, we laid it out. Our web site is like one big maze that has multiple paths that lead to multiple places. Our visitors have been brought to that maze from the outside world expecting to take one of those paths to find the specific piece of information they’ve come for.
We like to think that we can guide them through, but we really can’t tell, because we designed the maze and know all the paths out, so it always seems easy to us. But we can never predict how the people who visit the site are going to react to what they are presented. I’m going to give you a great example from the real world.
This is the exit door next to one of the registers at Yankee Wine & Spirits, my wine shop. It’s two feet from the counter where you check out, you face it while you’re standing there waiting to pay, you can clearly see the door handle and there’s a big red EXIT sign on the door at eye level, as well as a lighted sign hanging from the ceiling above it. I’ve done everything but stand there flapping my arms and pointing to the door, shouting this is the exit. At least 5 people a day ask me can I go out this door? I always think of comebacks in my mind, like no, it’s a special ornamental door and stuff like that, but the fact remains that people don’t pay much attention these days.
At Christmas time we had a six foot high revolving Korbel Champagne bottle above a double wide stack of Korbel cases. I can’t tell you how many people asked me where the Korbel was. See that giant spinning Korbel bottle? They would answer Yes? Then I would say It’s not over there. Surprisingly, this never got old.
I’ve helped design hundreds of award winning web sites, and I can tell you that everyone who wants to be successful needs to carefully design the path(s) through their site. Here’s how:
1. Start with a goal or goals. Figure out what you want your visitors to do on your site, what you want them to come away with, or what the end result of the visit should be. Your site could have more than one goal, but every site needs at least one. The goal could be knowing more about a product or service, buying a product or service, signing up for a newsletter, whatever. Get a blank piece of paper and put that at the top.
2. Plan for the ideas and concepts that support the goal(s). I like to make a list of the goals, then the ideas that support the goals, then the pages that support the ideas. I’ve seen others draw a circle with arms (like we used to draw the sun when we were kids), and put the goal in the circle with the different main supporting pages radiating out from the circle. Some people just sit there and make categorized lists until they can’t think of anything else. All methods work, and you may even think of something on your own.
3. Sketch out the central idea for each page and how it fits into the hierarchy of the site. This is where things start to come together. We used to use storyboards at the ad agency, but you don’t need anything as elaborate. I like to use separate sheets of paper for each page and stick them on the wall, but you can do whatever you want. Write the page theme or idea on the top of each sheet of paper and list what other internal or external links it might have. If you’re relying on affiliate program income I also list the type of ad or specific program that you will sell or presell on the page.
The great thing about taking the time here is that you can quickly see which pages won’t work, which ideas are a little off the mark, and where you might need additional pages.
You need to look at the path the user is taking on the site and make sure it flows properly, provides the right information and gets the user to the goal.
I usually think of my site like a sales presentation – you are telling a story, building a case from page to page persuading the user to take the action that gets you to your goal.
4. Profile your visitor. If you’ve read my stuff before you should be able to do this easily. Sit down and write down everything you can think of about your customer. Age, income, location, state of their life, what brings them to your site, what you think they want from the site, and anything else you can think of.
5. Code the pages. I like to look at the pieces of paper for each page as I code them. I also keep the visitor profile handy so I can refer to it. Keep in mind the idea that each page conveys and its relationship to the goal. Keep your pages short, conversational and easy to navigate through. Keep any navigation aids (menus, buttons, etc) consistent throughout the entire site. If the path is progressive (it leads the person through a set of pages in a particular order), I make sure there’s a bar at the top that shows all the steps with the current step highlighted and the ability to skip anywhere in the process from that bar.
6. Go through the site yourself and see where the weaknesses lie. They are always there. Keep in mind that people will skim the pages rather then reading them, and make sure there are enough bolded or italicized items. That’s where people’s eyes will come to rest. Make sure navigation is clearly marked, and the most popularly clicked spots (upper left, between the masthead and the text in the upper center, and between the bottom text and the footer) contain important items, key ideas or the desired action. Go through page by page and see where you have week copy, poor navigation or confusing calls to action. Then go to bed and look at everything again the next day. Whatever action you take to correct a weakness may not be enough.
Here’s another example from the wine shop:
This is the Manager’s desk on the sales floor. It’s the same style as the cash registers, but there is a computer instead of a register and barely enough room to put a wine bottle on the counter. The register is twenty feet away. You can see the sign with the arrow pointing to the cashier. I put that sign there because people were putting their items on the desk to be cashed out.
Today three people came there to checkout. People just don’t pay much attention and you have to work hard to get them to notice you and take an action.
All that being said, it’s time to find some guinea pigs.
7. Do some QA. We used to have a QA (Quality Assurance) department at Modem Media that would check out every page on every site before it was released and went live. I participated in some of the sessions. You can and should do the same thing on a smaller scale. Find some people with different computer platforms, different browsers and different monitor resolutions. If you can, try to pick some people with the same profile characteristics of your target audience. Give them instructions to go through the site twice. The first time you just want them to read the content and click on whatever appeals to them.
When they’re done, ask them what they thought of the site, what they got out of it, and if they would have been compelled to take the action that would have met your goal. If they say no, ask them why. Press them for an answer.
When you get the answer, ask them to go back through the site and click on every link on every page. Ask them which pages they liked the best and why.
Now what?
Run through the site again yourself, and make it live.
8. Obsessively study the site logs. Again, this is something I say over and over. Pay close attention to where your visitors exit the site, and how many times they take the action for your goal vs. how many times they drop off. If there’s a large disparity, either something’s wrong with your offer or something’s wrong with the site. You need to figure out what that is.
The more you think like your visitors, the more appealing your site will be, and the more visitors you will get. This translates into more sales, signups, or whatever your action may be.
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